I was looking for something non-chocolate to make for friends staying the weekend, and this was definitely a winner. The cake itself is dense and moist, and the frosting...oh, that frosting! Salted-caramel finger-lickin' good. I can see putting that on other cakes, and that caramel syrup would be good on plenty of other items, too.

While making the syrup, I had a bowl of snow scooped from the deck, sitting at the ready just in case of molten sugar splatters, and I was wearing long sleeves and two oven mitts. No mishaps resulted during the making of 'culinary napalm'. With minimal touching with water and pastry brush, and gentle swirling, the syrup turned out perfectly without the obnoxious sugar crystal problem. I used a 9-inch parchment and grease-lined springform pan for the cake, which was perfect.

I love the fact that it makes a single layer, which means no leftovers to tempt me for days and days from a big, multilayer thing. And the color the syrup gives the cake and frosting is just beautiful.

I should probably have noted that it took my oven an additional 15 minutes or so to completely bake the cake. It was still pretty liquid in the center at the end of the specified time, so be sure to test it with a pick or similar tool. And rich? I think this will do nicely.